The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1887-03-05
Look Here,

To the Editor of the Press.
The argument that the Old City Hall lot
must be the best site for the Soldiers Monu.
ment, because those who oppose it cannot a.
gree upon any other, has not such validity as
to justify the Advertiser in its so frequent
REPETITION. 1t is not their business to agree
upon another site. Everybody however
knows that. as soon as the committee become
aware that the erection of the monument in
Market Square is attended with too many
difficulties and too much expense, they will
not be twenty-four hours in agreeing upon
another spot 1t will be all the easier for
them to so agree, for the very reason that the
remonstrants who probably constitute mai
GRITTY of the stockholders of the Monument.
Association, have not copied the obstinacy
of the committee. who ought to represent
them, and do not make their further aid con-
ditional on the selection of some one of the
other more eligible sites.
If ground rent, actually offered by respon-
slble parties, is not proper basis for estima-
ting the value of real estate, it is the basis
which the assessors, the real estate brokers,
buyers and sellers universally adopt.
1t is proper basis for estimating the
value of Lincoln Park and of behring's
Oaks, and although the former is not worth
SO much per foot for house lots. nor the lat
ter per acre for restaurants, bowling alleys
and billiard rooms as Market Square, the
very centre of trade in the heart of the city
1t does measure to dollar the sacrifice the
city has made to insure to the public that
open space. 1t is reason, not why the city
should make but why it should not make an
other gratuitOus and unnecessary sacrifice
when the public taste and public convenience
do not demand it.
Lincoln Park was not taken when it was
until 1s,xl. 4
but when disastrous confagration had
ieVelied all Its crowded dwellings and shops
into heaps OF ruin and ashes. 1t was taken
because just then an open space could be
made with the least sacrifice of private rights.
1t was named with reference to the great
epoch of civil war and reconstruction which
mad Just then auspiciously closed. The way
TO Justify the expenditure which the half
burnt city submitted to, is to get from it
the largest possible equivalent utility, to
make II the site OF monument also COM
memoratlye of the same heroic period in our
national history. What do cities dedicate to
the public parks and squares for but that
they should be made beautiful and attrac-
tive by trees, walks, flowers, lawns, foun-
tains, statues and monuments? This park
has ample room, not only for Soldiers
Monument, but for statues of Grant and
Lincoln, which some day the liability of the
citizens, II the city prospers, can add to its
other attractions. At present it suffers for
SUCH eI6cIlOHS, ana looks lncaBre ana naked
like spacious and expensive room with no
furniture in it.
Besides, when Lincoln Park was purchased
the financial situation of the city was differ
ent from its present situation. The rate of
taxation had been high, but was supposed to
be temporary inconvenience, due to the
great fire and to municipal debt the result of
the war. Since then the great railroads to
which the city has loaned its credit have
practically. failed and their guaranteed secur-
tiles have fallen on the city as heavy and
permanent burden, while the business which
was expected to come exclusively to this ter
minus has been diverted to and shared by
other sea ports. The rate of taxation, SO
much heavier than the average of New |
England Cities which had slightly abated, |
falling to $40 per $1,000, has begun slightly |
to rise again, and that, too, at time when |
five per cent. is the highest rate of interest, |
and when the average income of business is |
scarcely higher.
AS to the argument of the increased value
of property around Market Square acith a |
it is enough to say that it does |
not seem to have convinced the owners of |
the property, nearly all of whom have signed |
the relnOnStrance X,